"Paparazzi" is a song written by Lady Gaga and Rob Fusari (Team Love Child), released as the final single from her debut album, The Fame. It was the last collaboration they did together, in 2007. According to Gaga, it's was her "first real pop song" that she wrote with a "killer hook". The song was performed during the MTV Video Music Awards in 2009. It peaked at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Writing and inspiration

When Ron Slomowicz from About.com referred to different interpretations of the single, Gaga responded:
Well I'm so glad there are a few different interpretations, that was the idea. The song is about a few different things – it's about my struggles, do I want fame or do I want love? It's also about wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with me. It's about the media whoring, if you will, watching ersatzes make fools of themselves to their station. It's a love song for the cameras, but it's also a love song about fame or love – can you have both, or can you only have one?
To the Australian Daily Telegraph, Gaga explained that the song was also about struggling to balance success and love. Bill Lamb from About.com concurred that "the song is a tribute of sorts to the symbiotic but ultimately fake and 'plastic' relationship between stars and their trailing paparazzi [...] who, for better or worse, are there to document and, in a sense, create the stardom."

“

I just thought that it was turning into a constant problem, so what's more important thing to write about than the absolute hugest part of media culture? The paparazzi. What am I really trying to say here? What will the act of me writing this song really do? Me making a conscious decision to write about the paparazzi – I thought about performance art and shock art and how Paris Hilton and her sister and Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie are shock artists in their own way. They're not necessarily doing fine arts – something they put in the museums – but it's an art form. That's what this song is trying to say. [...] At the same time, the lyrics are very confusing. It says, "I'm your biggest fan. I'll follow you until you love me, paparazzi. There's no other superstar you know that I'll be. Your Papa-paparazzi." The thing is, I will chase you because I'm a star but I'm going to chase you if you're the star. It's very twisted. When you have love, when you have fame, when you have both, it's all of those issues in one record. It's my favorite song in the album. [...] Well I'm so glad there are a few different interpretations, that was the idea. The song is about a few different things – it's about my struggles, do I want fame or do I want love? It's also about wooing the paparazzi to fall in love with me. It's about the media whoring, if you will, watching ersatzes make fools of themselves to their station. It's a love song for the cameras, but it's also a love song about fame or love – can you have both, or can you only have one?

”

—Lady Gaga

Official versions

2007 Demo version — 3:29

Album version — 3:29

Clean version (Radio Edit) — 3:29

Music video version with piano introduction — 7:11

Composition

"Paparazzi" has a similar up-tempo composition to the previous singles "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" and carries a sultry beat. The song has a moderate electro-synth groove. The verses are in the key of C minor while the chorus is in the Key of A flat major, and the song is a tempo of 115 beats per minute. It is set in common time, and Gaga's vocal range spans from a low-note of G3 to the high-note of E♭5. According to Bill Lamb of About.com, Gaga's voice is heard above these beats, seductively as if enticing the listener to the complex world of stardom. The song's chords have a warmth in them. "Paparazzi" is based on slightly langorous synth textures and incorporates percussion to convey the emotions. Emotions lying in the composition range from sexual desire, dread, and resigned acknowledgment to an insistence to have fun. The lyrics of "Paparazzi" deal with stalking and the trappings of fame.

Commercial release

"Paparazzi" was the third single released from The Fame in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy, the fourth single in Canada and the United States, and lastly, the fifth single in Australia and New Zealand. It was released on July 6, 2009 in the United Kingdom, and July 10th in Australia. Initially, "LoveGame" had been planned to be released as the third single in the United Kingdom, but it was decided that "Paparazzi" would be released instead because of the potentially controversial lyrics and the music video for "LoveGame".

Music video

The short film / music video for "Paparazzi" was shot April 13 and 14, 2009 in Bel-Air. The video was initially set to premiere on June 4, 2009 in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Channel 4, however, while touring in Australia, Gaga posted a message on her Twitter account on May 29, 2009 saying "Stop leaking my motherfucking videos", which referred to the video being released without the singer's consent.

The video premiered on Perez Hilton's website on May 29 at 9PM EST. The explicit version was released at midnight on Channel on June 4, 2009.

The music video was directed by Swedish director, Jonas Åkerlund. His wife Bea Åkerlund was hired as Gaga's stylist for the video. Gaga told MTV that she had finished shooting "[..] my video for 'Paparazzi,' which I really am very pleased with the way that turned out. It's like a short film." In an interview with The Canadian Press on May 26, 2009, Gaga cited her video as "the most amazing creative work that [she's] put together so far." She went on to describe the idea behind the video and the message it gives.

"It has a real, genuine, powerful message about fame-whoring and death and the demise of the celebrity, and what that does to young people. The video explores ideas about sort of hyperbolic situations that people will go to in order to be famous. Most specifically, pornography and murder. These are some of the major themes in the video."

In 2010, Lady Gaga released the sequel with the music video for "Telephone", featuring Beyoncé. The story starts off where the music video for "Paparazzi" ended, with Gaga going to jail.

Cast

Lady Gaga — Herself

The boyfriend — Alexander Skarsgård

Policeman 1— Kerry Rhodes

Policeman 2— Michael Paul

Policeman 3— Eric SchackelFord

Model 1— Zdenka Sutton

Model 2— Katrina Hunter

German super model— Margarita Ruhl

Forensic 1 — George Finn

Forensic 2 — Marc Livingood

Triplets — Snakes of Eden

Script

The music video's original script, written by both Jonas Åkerlund and Gaga herself, features Lady Gaga and her on-screen boyfriend Alexander Skarsgård speaking to each other in Swedish.

Outfit fitting (March, 2009)

Fashion/Synopsis

Scene 1

The video opens with a shot of a seaside mansion, where Gaga and her boyfriend are shown lying on a bed. They move to the balcony and start making out, but a hidden photographer takes pictures of them. Gaga realizes that her boyfriend has set the paparazzi to photograph her and tries to stop him. However, when it becomes futile, she smashes his face with a champagne bottle. The enraged boyfriend throws her over the balcony. While falling, a black and white pattern flashes in the background, in reference to the Alfred Hitchcock film "Vertigo."

Scene 4

Next Gaga is shown on a golden couch where she makes out with a trio of hair metal rockers during the line "Loving you is cherry pie". The trio, known as Snake of Eden, are from reality television dating program Daisy of Love.

Scene 6

As the dancers gyrate around her, she takes off her black body suit and starts walking down the carpet with the help of a pair of crutches while wearing a metallic bustier and a matching helmet. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of dead models including one whose face is wrapped in plastic, one who is hanging from a noose and one who appears to be oozing gold colored blood from her mouth.

Scene 7

Lady Gaga: The White Bodysuit and Half Skirt hybrid by Boudicca, Shoes by FendiDancers: Outfits made by B. Akerlund, inspired by the Boudicca dress.

Scene 8

The video continues through the intermediate bridge with Gaga wearing a dress made up of film strips and a towering feathered Mohawk headdress. Her trademark dogs, two harlequin Great Danes, are also shown during this scene.

Scene 9

In the next scene, Gaga and her eye-patch wearing boyfriend are reading magazines on a sofa in a quaint tea room. Gaga wears a flamboyant outfit of yellow jumpsuit with circular glasses and circular shoulder pads. She finally takes her revenge on her boyfriend by discreetly poisoning his drink with white powder concealed in her ring. As he falls dead she calls 9-1-1 and declares that she just killed her boyfriend. Investigators are then shown searching the room for evidence.

Scene 10

The police come and she gets arrested for the murder. Gaga, wearing a tall, blond, corkscrew wig, walks to the police car as the paparazzi surround her once again. Images flash by, with newspapers proclaiming her innocence and that Gaga is back in the spotlight and has regained her fame.